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The li (, ''lǐ'', or , ''shìlǐ''), also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about a third as long as the English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer (). This is then divided into chi or "Chinese feet". The character 里 combines the characters for "field" (田, ''tián'') and "earth" (土, ''tǔ''), since it was considered to be about the length of a single village. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the ''effort'' required to cover the distance. There is also another ''li'' (Traditional: 釐, Simplified: 厘, ''lí'') that indicates a unit of length 1/1000 of a ''chi'', but it is used much less commonly. This ''li'' is used in the People's Republic of China as the equivalent of the ''centi-'' prefix in metric units, thus ''limi'' (厘米, límǐ) for centimeter. The tonal difference makes it distinguishable to speakers of Chinese, but unless specifically noted otherwise, any reference to ''li'' will always refer to the longer traditional unit and not to either the shorter unit or the kilometer. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit. ==Changing values== Like most traditional Chinese measurements, the ''li'' was reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of Chinese civilization around 2600 BC and standardized by Yu the Great of the Xia Dynasty six hundred years later. Although the value varied from state to state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, historians give a general value to the ''li'' of 405 meters prior to the Qin Dynasty imposition of its standard in the 3rd century BC. The basic Chinese traditional unit of distance was the ''chi''. As its value changed over time, so did the ''li''’s. In addition, the number of ''chi'' per ''li'' was sometimes altered. To add further complexity, under the Qin Dynasty, the ''li'' was set at 360 "paces" (, ''bù'') but the number of ''chi'' per ''bu'' was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the ''li'' by 1/6. Thus, the Qin ''li'' of about 576 meters became (with other changes) the Han ''li'', which was standardized at 415.8 meters. The basic units of measurement fortunately remained stable over the Qin and Han periods. A bronze imperial standard measure, dated AD 9, had been preserved at the Imperial Palace in Beijing and came to light in 1924. This has allowed very accurate conversions to modern measurements, which has provided a new and extremely useful additional tool in the identification of place names and routes. These measurements have been confirmed in many ways including the discovery of number of rulers found at archaeological sites, and careful measurements of distances between known points.〔Hulsewé (1961), pp. 206–207.〕 The Han ''li'' was calculated by Dubs to be 415.8 metres〔Dubs (1938), pp. 276-280; (1955), p. 160, n. 7,〕 and all indications are that this is a precise and reliable determination.〔 Under the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), the ''li'' was approximately 323 meters. In the late Manchu or Qing Dynasty, the number of ''chi'' was increased from 1,500 per ''li'' to 1,800. This had a value of 2115 feet or 644.6 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called the tu, which was equal to 150 ''li'' (96.7 km). These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek, who adopted the metric system in 1928. The Republic of China (now also known as Taiwan) continues not to use the ''li'' at all but only the kilometer (Chinese: , ''gongli'', lit. "common li"). Under Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China reinstituted the traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride before officially adopting the metric system in 1984. A place was made within this for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. A modern ''li'' is thus set at exactly half a kilometer (500 meters). However, unlike the ''jin'' which is still frequently preferred in daily use over the kilogram, the ''li'' is almost never used. Nonetheless, its appearance in many phrases and sayings means that "kilometer" must always be specified by saying ''gongli'' in full. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Li (unit)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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